Arguing with a machine: How gen AI tools are transforming legal practice

Lawtech and AI: University of Manchester Seminar series

University of Manchester Law Tech Initiative and Visioning Lab, an R&D SME, have teamed up to offer three seminars focused on how AI is changing law and the legal sector in the UK. These include Seminar 1: How AI transforms processes, Seminar 2: How AI affects behaviour and judgement and Seminar 3: How AI affects the wider legal ecosystem and society.

The seminars will be led by Dr Jessica Symons, an anthropologist and founder of Visioning Lab, a Manchester-based R&D practice specialising in AI-enabled knowledge systems, standards and public engagement. Her work combines ethnographic insight with systems thinking to help organisations understand how emerging technologies reshape professional practice, regulation and society. Jessica holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Manchester and has over twenty years’ experience helping people make sense of complex technological and social change.

Jessica spoke recently at the University of Manchester Law Tech conference on the transformative effect of AI on law and is now leading this seminar series exploring the topic further.

Seminar 2: Arguing with a machine: How gen AI tools are transforming legal practice

Summary

In this exploratory seminar, we will consider how AI transforms legal interactions when citizens and junior lawyers feel empowered by advice and text provided through Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT.

I had a case against a litigant-in-person recently who sent me long emails arguing for a position that I suspected had been copied and pasted from ChatGPT. On several points, the law was wrong. They had no way of knowing the law was wrong - and pushed back strongly when corrected.
(Solicitor account of a case, October 2025)

There is great potential in the use of Generative AI and many UK citizens feel empowered by the support and advice that they receive from tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Co-Pilot. Similarly, less experienced lawyers are using these tools to speed up their work and write documents.

However, in both cases, they lack the experience to know if the arguments and references used by the AI tools are correct. Legal positions are nuanced and highly-contextual. Part of a junior’s training is time spent poring through different judgements and cases to understand how a new matter fits into existing situations. Their craft is developed by producing arguments and testing them against colleagues, opponents and judges.

This seminar is an opportunity for lawyers to share their stories of how AI is changing their daily working practices, both in their interactions with colleagues and with clients, opponents and judges.

It will also consider how the UK government can foster the use of legal AI tools in a structured and supportive way and how this leadership could transform the UK justice system.

Hosted by the Manchester Law & Technology Initiative but open to non-members.

Location Williamson Building, 4.07 (Seminar Room), Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL - located on 4th floor of WIlliamson Building, take lift or stairs to 4th floor, room is located through the double doors at top of stairs (right out of lifts) https://www.manchester.ac.uk/about/maps/interactive-map/?id=50

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Host or Publisher Rachel Kenyon | Business Engagement Lead for Fintech, LegalTech and Digital Trust & Security | The University of Manchester